Celestria and Jazz stood up. Celestria held out her hand. ‘Thank you, Mr Carlisle, I know Tom’s in the best possible hands.’

‘We do our best.’ Carlisle nodded brusquely. ‘Ring the bell and the nurse will let you in. If you’ll excuse me, I need to check on another patient.’

‘Of course.’ They followed him out of the relatives’ room and watched as he hurried off down the corridor. Jazz rang the bell at the entrance to the critical care ward. As they waited, Celestria grabbed Jazz’s hand once more.

‘Darling, we mustn’t let him know how bad it is.’

‘Mum, I’m sure he already knows.’

The door opened and a pretty Malaysian nurse came out.

‘We’re here to see Tom Hunter,’ said Jazz.

The nurse nodded and they followed her through the door and into the strangely silent ward.

As they approached, Tom lifted a hand to acknowledge them. Jazz hung back as Celestria went to embrace her husband. She saw her whisper something in his ear and watched as his eyes lit up in pleasure. Celestria sat down on one side of the bed, holding Tom’s hand, and Jazz approached her father on the other.

She kissed him on the top of his head, then bent down to whisper in his ear. ‘Hello, Daddy. Don’t laugh or I’ll get told off, but you look like a baby elephant in that get-up.’ She indicated the mask, with the plastic tube that stuck out at its centre over his nose, reminiscent of an elephant’s trunk. She saw her father smile, and sat down on the other side of the bed opposite her mother.

‘Trust you to get sick on the day we have the worst snowfall for years,’ Celestria said, stroking Tom’s hand. ‘Your daughter had to ski here from Norfolk.’

‘It’s even bad on the coast at the moment, which is very unusual.’ Jazz wondered at the banality of her comment. When all she wanted to say was, Don’t leave me, I need you and love you and it’s breaking my heart to watch you suffer . . .

Fifteen or so minutes later, Tom drifted off to sleep.

‘Mum, I must find a loo. Will you be all right here for a few minutes?’

‘Of course, darling.’ Celestria was stroking her husband’s forehead, a smile on her face as she watched him sleep. ‘I know what he’s like. He won’t close his eyes and rest unless I’m here, making sure the doctors don’t do anything he doesn’t know about. Why don’t you go and get yourself a coffee? Take a breather? I really am happy here.’

Jazz realised Celestria wanted to be by herself with Tom, maybe thinking she must savour every moment they had left.

‘Okay, I’ll be back up shortly.’

As Jazz left the ward, found the loo, then made her way through the maze of corridors that would perhaps lead her one day to the canteen, she shuddered at the smell of the place. As a policewoman, she’d spent numerous hours in hospitals interviewing suspects, victims or witnesses, and had never been affected. Being a relative of a very sick patient was a different experience.